Higher Strike Zone Makes for Better Baseball

Glenn Dickey

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, March 27, 2001

ONE OF the most encouraging components of spring training has been the effort to bring back the strike above the waist, which should bring some balance to a game that has become lopsided in favor of hitters.

"It's not just the high strike," said Sandy Alderson, assistant to commissioner Bud Selig, in a telephone conversation. "We want umpires to call the low strike and the inside strike, and not to call balls wide of the strike zones strikes.

"So far, the umpires have been very good. We've been monitoring them closely this spring, and we'll continue to do that during the season."

It's hoped, too, that the expanded strike zone also will mean shorter games.

Alderson has timed games this spring but has no basis for comparison because nobody bothered to time spring-training games before.

"Games have been running about 2:40," he said, "but I don't know how that will translate into regular-season games because you don't have the mid-inning pitching changes in the spring that you have in the regular season."

STAY, JASON: The A's already are selling tickets at a pace which will shoot them over 2 million in attendance this year, but an extension of Jason Giambi's contract would have given them a huge bump. Giambi took the wrong message from the trading of his friend, Mark McGwire, in 1997. McGwire wanted to leave. So would Jason if the A's fell off again the way they had then.

SPANISH RADIO: It's all but set now that the Giants will broadcast 40 Spanish language games this season on KZSF (1370 AM), with announcers Amaury Pi-Gonzalez and Erwin Higueroa. The games will be Friday-Saturday-Sunday, and Opening Day also will be broadcast. Look for a formal announcement later this week.

STANFORD'S EXIT: Jason Collins' weak effort against Maryland might keep him in school for another season, if the decision really is predicated on where he'd go in the NBA Draft. He certainly didn't look like a first-round pick in Saturday's game. . . . Before the tournament started, a knowledgeable observer told me he worried about Stanford's chances because the Cardinal didn't get many easy transition baskets. Maryland did, and that was a key factor. At least the Cardinal didn't forfeit.

49ERS AT STANFORD?: If the 49ers decide to tear down their current stadium and build a new one on that site, they'd need another place to play for two years. The logical spot would be Stanford. The school's nonprofit status prevents regular use of its stadium by professional teams but allows "occasional use."

"We had the World Cup here, and FIFA is a professional organization," Stanford athletic director Ted Leland said. "I know our athletic department would love to accommodate them, so we'd just have to see if this would fit the 'occasional' slot."

NFL DRAFT: Their signing of free-agent linebacker Derek Smith means the 49ers don't think they'll have a shot at Miami linebacker Dan Morgan, who has been projected as their pick in mock drafts. A running back is still the more likely choice, whether the 49ers retain their No. 9 slot or trade down to get an additional pick, as Bill Walsh wants to do. . . . Tight end has become a priority for the Raiders. Rickey Dudley was an under-producer but his departure has left the team with two players -- Jeremy Brigham and Mondriel Fulcher -- who are no more than backups. Hopefully, somebody will be there to make a decision on draft day. Raiders headquarters are like a ghost town these days with Al Davis and associates in court in Los Angeles.

GETTING SMART: XFL promoter Vince McMahon has deserted the wrestling-style promotion because he's discovered what the rest of us already knew, that American sports fans prefer football. Of the more than 100 e-mails I got last week on my XFL column, which advocated focusing on the football and not the sideshows, only two of them were negative. It supports the theory that the American appetite for football is insatiable. My respondents ranged in age from 15 to 80 and many follow NFL teams, too.

GOOD MAN: Cal offensive coordinator Al Borges grew up a Giants fan in Salinas and has never changed. "When I was coaching at UCLA," Borges said, "I used to go to Dodger Stadium just to root against the Dodgers."